# pilus
## English
### Etymology

Borrowed from Latin pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pile.

### Noun

pilus (plural pili)
* A hair.
* (microbiology) A hairlike appendage found on the cell surface of many bacteria.
* (biochemistry) A bacterial protein that has several biochemical functions.

#### Synonyms

* (hairlike appendage): fimbria

#### See also

* flagellum
* pilus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Pulis, pulis, pusil

## Dutch
### Noun

pilus m (plural pili)
* pilus (bacterial appendage)

## Estonian
### Noun

pilus
* inessive singular of pilu

## Latin
### Etymology 1

Uncertain. Older sources reconstruct Proto-Indo-European *pilo- (“hair”), with Latin pilleus (“felt cap”), Ancient Greek πῖλος (pîlos, “wool or hair wrought into felt”), Proto-Slavic *pьlstь (“felt”) as cognates, but this is no longer accepted.

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpɪɫ̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpiːlus]

#### Noun

pilus m (genitive pilī); second declension
* (anatomy) A hair.
    Synonym: capillus
* (figuratively) An insignificant amount; iota; least amount

##### Declension

Second-declension noun.

##### Derived terms

* dēpilātus
* pila
* pilleus
* pilō
* pilōsus

##### Descendants

* Balkan Romance:
** Aromanian: per
** Megleno-Romanian: per
** Istro-Romanian: per
** Romanian: păr
* Dalmatian:
** pail
* Italo-Romance:
** Italian: pelo
** Neapolitan: pilo
** Sicilian: pilu
* Insular Romance:
** Sardinian: pilu, piu
* North Italian:
** Gallo-Italic:
*** Emilian: pèil, päil, pel
*** Ligurian: pèi
*** Lombard: pel, pil
*** Piedmontese: pèil, pèi
*** Romagnol: pél, päil
** Friulian: pêl
** Romansch: pail, peil, pel
** Venetan: péło
* Gallo-Romance:
** Franco-Provençal: pêl
** Old French: peil, poil
*** French: poil ⇒ pelage
**** → English: pelage
*** Norman: pé
* Occitano-Romance:
** Catalan: pèl
** Occitan: pel
* Ibero-Romance:
** Asturian: pelu, pelo
** Old Galician-Portuguese: pelo (/l/ likely kept by analogy with cabelo)
*** Galician: pelo
*** Portuguese: pelo
** Spanish: pelo
* Borrowings:
** → English: pile (fine underfur of certain animals)
** → Ido: pilo

#### References

* ↑ Walde, Alois (1927) Julius Pokorny, editor, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen (in German), volume II, Berlin: de Gruyter, page 71
* ↑ Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 830
* ↑ Walde, Alois, Hofmann, Johann Baptist (1954) “pilus”, in Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), 3rd edition, volume II, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, pages 304–305
* ↑ Ernout, Alfred, Meillet, Antoine (1985) “pilus”, in Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue latine: histoire des mots‎ (in French), 4th edition, with additions and corrections of Jacques André, Paris: Klincksieck, published 2001, page 507b
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “pilus”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 465

### Etymology 2

From pīlum (“javelin”).

#### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈpiː.lus/, [ˈpiːɫ̪ʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈpi.lus/, [ˈpiːlus]

#### Noun

pīlus m (genitive pīlī); second declension
* A maniple of the triāriī; a reserve company of veteran soldiers.

##### Declension

Second-declension noun.

##### Synonyms

* pīlum

##### Derived terms

* prīmus pīlus

### Further reading

* “pilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “pilus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* pilus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* pilus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.